SSL Duality console drives successful program launch at Daytona State College

New Music Production Technology Program Enrollment Greatly Exceeds Expectations

DAYTONA BEACH, FL  With Music Production Technology classes in full swing for the Spring semester, the 48-channel Solid State Logic Duality SE console at the Daytona State College Mike Curb College of Art, Music and Science is working overtime to accommodate the new program. Duality offers a wide range of features that make it highly desirable as a teaching platform including in-console control of Pro Tools® and other DAW software platforms.

The way Duality works with Pro Tools is just brilliant, says Jake Niceley, instructor of music production technology in the School of Music Entertainment and Art at Daytona State College. I can teach a whole class on analogue consoles and never even turn on our workstation computer, or I can teach a whole class on digital audio workstations and never run an analogue signal. From an educational and budgetary standpoint, I can do everything I need with one Duality instead of needing two discrete consoles and control rooms.

Duality services a 1,000 square foot studio room and has ties into an 850 seat proscenium style theater and a 250 seat thrust theatre that can also convert to a black box theatre. Daytona is using SSL Alpha-Link audio converters and a Delta-Link MADI HD Pro Tools® interface as their DAW I/O system.

The design of Duality really helps us to demonstrate signal flow for our students, states Niceley. The TFT displays show students how the routing is laid out on every channel, helping to take the mystery out of a difficult setup. The EQ and Dynamics are great, as expected, and we really like the VHD harmonic distortion feature to give us a wide range of sonic colors. The center section is laid out perfectly to handle all the external devices and surround sound mix options. From an instructional standpoint, we need to keep things fairly basic for the new students and, at the same time, we need to prepare students for whatever they may see when they get out in the workplace. Once again, Duality gives us the opportunity to gather all the different elements we need in one console. This is quite remarkable.

According to Niceley, the Duality design approach will grow with any changes in the industry. A control surface might be tied to a particular software platform that may enjoy success now, but might not be around in 10 years.

Duality is a good investment for now and for the future, states Niceley. No matter what comes along, this console will be able to address the changes. Also, the green aspects of the console are attractive. By not having all those racks of power supplies that we used to have with a large analogue console, we didnt need a dedicated HVAC system and the associated costs of running over the years. But, most of all, when students walked into our magnificent control room and saw Duality they all knew that this was as good as it gets anywhere in the world, and that fills up classes.